Kabul Transit (2006)

Filmmakers David Edwards and Gregory Whitmore present a lyrical portrait of a nation torn by war and unrest in this documentary. Edwards is an anthropologist with an extensive background of study in A... read more fghanistan who teamed up with veteran filmmaker Whitmore to make a movie about the nation's capitol. Rather than shoot a travelogue or a polemic about how military violence has damaged the city and its people, they opted to shoot a fly-on-the-wall documentary in which they portrayed all sides of life in Kabul and allowed its citizens to speak for themselves. Kabul Transit's images range from children flying kites to police discussing the difficulty of enforcing the law in the city; Edwards and Whitmore also visit a NATO peacekeeping base, a college where female students discuss the slow progress of women's rights, a village in the mountains where Canadian soldiers attempt to bring a sewage system to the indigent people, moneychangers playing their trade, a nightclub where folks try to forget their troubles by singing karaoke, and many other sights in and around the city. Kabul Transit was screened as part of the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi